Solution Devices
by eden alice
Summary: He corners her in an empty operating theatre. Joseph/Jac


My first try with this fandom. This is me trying to get a handle on how the character's think (especially Jac). Hope you like it...

Solution Devices

He corners her in an empty operating theatre, his eyes dark and hard in a way that she had only seen a few times. The silence between them heavy and uncomfortable but Jac made every effort to appear unaffected. For once she had no idea what she had done or what scheme had unravelled, but any excuse died on her lips when she noticed the tense line of his jaw and the way his fingers curled into a lose fists.

"Joseph…" She trailed off. Her usual sarcastic remark seemed inappropriate so she left him to gaze intently at her, all brooding and introspective. There was something different about the man she had always considered she knew inside out. There was a steady darkness that both surprised and intrigued her.

It was a sudden realisation and it sunk heavy in her stomach. She had done this to him. She had seen glimpses of this new Joseph with each new hurt she caused. The new brittle bitterns had slowly eaten away at the gentle trust she used to find in his handsome features. Maybe she only developed feeling for him once she was cast out under the shadow of his new darkness. There was a sense of kinship and she could not bring herself to walk away. Maybe unconsciously she had wanted to destroy his trust in others just like what was done to her many years ago.

And now as she waited for him to speak she saw the full extent of how he burned. The flame consumed, naked and open and like a moth she couldn't look away. The guilt sits heavy and unfamiliar in her heart, she never thought she'd allow herself to care for anyone one so much.

"I'm done Jac, we're done. I can't do this anymore." He articulated each word precisely as if he had been planning them for a long time. Confusion briefly flashed in Jac's eyes, in recent months their relationship had been non existent apart from on a professional level. Its only when she's alone that she lets herself miss him.

"You keep saying that and even though you're married to someone else you keep coming back." She arched an eyebrow, a familiar coldness settling in at her acerbic reply, like a nuclear winter.

"You know full well what I mean. Don't bother pretending you don't, it's tedious." She knew. She had to know. Joseph felt his voice grow louder into a controlled shout. No one infuriated him, got under his skin like this woman did.

For once she might not have actually done anything although he was so used to her constant games he was unable to relax around her. He had thought that he could move on, that after how deeply Jac hurt him it would not matter how much he loved her. And although he had Faye to warm his bed just a glimpse of red hair and pale, sculpted skin made his mouth go dry. He finally realised that it did not matter if she was trying to manipulate him or not, he just couldn't be around her any more.

Jac smiled tightly at him, "So what, you expect me to disappear into a puff of smoke just to make your life easier. I work here as well Joseph."

"Yes I do. If you were to go everything would be so much simpler." He knew full well that he sounded like a spoiled child but couldn't bring himself to care.

A low chuckle escapes from Jac as she turned and walked away from him leaning heavily on her crutch. The accident had resulted in a severe break and Jac had never stopped working long enough for it to heal enough so that she could walk unaided. It had never occurred to Joseph that this made her weak, not when the cold determination in her eyes was always so strong. She busied herself tidying even if she was making more of a mess, it wasn't her job anyway.

"Simpler doesn't mean better." Her voice was clear as it reverberated around the empty room and was met by loaded silence.

He had admitted that he still loved her not so long ago in a room identical to the one they currently inhabited but he refused to speak the words again. He was not able to articulate how he ached to touch her or how she clouded things so much that he did not know who he was anymore.

"Better doesn't mean its right."

"Right and wrong has nothing to do with how you feel for me." Jac turned back to face him meeting his gaze assertively.

"For god sake Jac, it's all this is about! I have a wife and a step-son and I will not betray them." He practically growled.

Across the room Jac's long hair fell like a veil across her face as she momentarily glanced at the floor. "And I'm not the only one who betrayed someone. Faye has never stopped lying to you and you've already slept with me so don't you dare make out that I'm the bad one."

But she had to be the bad guy if he was ever going to find a way of an impossible situation. He could make things work with his wife if Jac was not always around to confuse him. He could settle.

He had knocked over a metal cart before he even consciously knew what he was doing. The noise was like sudden thunder rolling in an approaching threat. He felt strangely satisfied when he saw Jac physically jump, here eyes wide and startled. He would be the one in control for once. He would be the one to make her leave.

Joseph had never seemed as large as when he started to stalk towards her closing the distance between them. A sense of panic started to pull at her nerve endings and she found herself taking a few steps back because for the first time the man she knows so well scared her. Her bad knee sent shooting pains through her leg with every step. The cold weather always made it hurt more than the normal constant ache she always ignored.

"Your damaged good Jac and you just keep on hurting the people around you." He towered over her keeping his voice barely above a whisper but she heard every word clearly.

She bit into the soft cushion of her bottom lip wiping every trace of hurt and anger away into an expressionless mask. Taking another step backwards she came into contact with the wall.

Joseph had her cornered. Times like these she truly missed being able to ride her motorbike. She never saw the bike after she crashed it but she had been told it was nothing but a smouldering pile of twisted metal. Speeding along was the only time she felt free, as if she could run away from anything. The thrill had made her feel invincible, untouchable. The accident was not the first time she had overtaken on a blind bend.

"When did you become a qualified psychologist?" The words did not come out as unaffected as she wanted.

He ignored her taunt, pinning her with his gaze as much as with his size. "You pretend that your content all alone with your cold dead heart but we both know you better than that. You push everyone away who gets too close. You make them hurt you back because that's all you have ever known." He moved to brush a section of her hair behind her ear and she flinches away with more anger than fear. "Your still the little girl at the window of the care home praying that mummy will come back for you."

In a flash of moment she knocked him to his knees with a single swipe of her crutch, a scream of rage escaping her because words were not enough. Joseph laughs as he doubles over. He remembers his father's funeral. How even after all her plans fell through Jac had continued to try and hurt him.

At the time he did not understand how she could be so cruel and unfeeling to go for his jugular after breaking his heart and pulling his family apart. He understood now, he had seen it in the way she taunted him till he snapped and assaulted her. She had looked up at him with blood running from her nose and simply laughed. He had cried in the bathroom not recognising the man he had become but now he understood that Jac was set to self destruct. That underneath all the ice queen façade she did not think anyone could love her

He wanted to be the person who proved her wrong so much it made his bones ache but she wasn't the only one with issues and she had hurt him one too many times.

"Don't you dare. I don't care what you think you know, just don't."

Joseph climbed to his feet and found Jac had moved away from the wall to stand behind him. Her arms were tightly crossed over her chest and her eyes glassy with tears. He had only seen her cry once before and he had been so close to death that it did not seem like a real memory.

Suddenly his anger dissipated and he was left with despair and confusion and still he couldn't bring himself to let go completely.

"I just don't know how to carry on anymore." He had not meant to speak the words out loud and they sounded defeated to his own ears.

A single tear escaped Jac's eye and traced a wet line down her cheek. She quickly wiped it away with the back of her hand her own anger evaporating as quickly as it had come. She was tired now, tired of playing games and the constant sniping.

"Neither do I. I'm so sorry Joe."

"I know you are." When he thought that they both might die he had finally realised just how sorry she really was. But even now he was not ready to forgive her.

The silence between them was dense and loaded but not uncomfortable.

"What do you want me to do? " Jac finally asked her voice uncharacteristically timid. Suddenly afraid that Joseph might want to wipe every trace of her from his life and how that would feel like having her heart ripped to shreds once again.

Joseph stared blankly into middle distance for a long time. She could see this mind working in the tense set of his jaw. "I don't know." He answered finally. And while they had no answers at least it was honest.


End file.
